Scotland!

My mother's mom, my grandmother, is from Glasgow, Scotland. She fell in love with my grandfather, an American, when he was stationed overseas during World War II. She moved with him to the United States when he returned from fighting, they got married, had children, and the rest is history, I suppose.

For a long time, I've wanted to surprise my mom with a trip to Scotland to visit family/see the places where her mother grew up and frequented. This past May, after returning from Peru, I was reminded how life is so very short. While stand-up comedian + full-time law student does not spell instant riches, I thought, "why not?" and quickly clicked "purchase" on the British Airways website before allowing a second thought to enter into my brain.

Since I bought our tickets eight months prior our departure, it didn't exactly seem real.

But, after completing my hardest law school semester to date and finishing my last final of the semester, it hit me.

And then the reality of not having done laundry in four weeks, having to cram a lot into a tiny carry-on, and leaving on the same day as my last final (final final, if you will) hit me.

I got it done though (along with all my Christmas shopping and wrapping...and I even managed to clean out my refrigerator so my apartment wouldn't smell to high Heaven when I returned).

My mom and I left from Toronto, so the first part of our journey was to drive there. Then, it was a flight to London (in which I attempted to watch Bridge of Spies at least three times only to fall asleep ten minutes into the movie. No offense, Mr. Hanks), a tiny lay-over at Heathrow and then a quick flight to Glasgow.


Can you tell which one of us is exhausted? I slept my way over the Atlantic, and I'd just like to take a moment to give a big shout-out to neck pillows and the guy with the window seat not getting up once during the flight.

Once we arrived in Glasgow, we checked into our hotel and met up with our cousin, Anne. She works at the Glasgow City Chambers (a truly gorgeous building that will get more attention in later blogs), so we met her there. The City Chambers is located on Georges Square, which was set up for Christmas (more on this later, too), complete with an ice-skating rink and Ferris wheel.






Anne took us to an excellent little place (or, as they say in Scotland, a "wee place") called the 13th Note. It felt more like a pub, but it had a full menu. It was here that I fell in love with vegan haggis. I always thought my soul mate would come in human form, but now I'm not so sure.

 



We shared wine and laughs with Anne before cabbing it back to our hotel fairly early.



Our room was pretty basic (but for $40 in the biggest city in Scotland, I really couldn't complain), but the location was great, and the beds were comfy.


A successful first day!